Assessments of Public Defender Attrition

• In Event: Legal Services for the Indigent: Attorneys and Their Work

Abstract

Anecdotal accounts of high turnover among public defenders due to occupational stress, limited institutional resources, and heavy workloads are abundant. But there is virtually no empirical evidence about the prevalence and causes of attrition in public defender offices. We employ a mixed methods approach to this question through interviews with public defenders and analysis of secondary quantitative data. Interviews with defenders in two large urban counties from the Northeast and Southern parts of the United States provide individual-level assessments of attrition, burnout, and occupational stress. Next, we contextualize interview findings with defender office-level data sourced from the Bureau of Justice Statistics to examine caseload, case complexity, funding structures, and salaries. Finally, we present a “big data” analysis of approximately two million criminal records from one of our research sites to examine the types and qualities of cases and defendants typically assigned to public defenders. Taken together, results show how individual attorneys navigate and manage institutional conditions while simultaneously strategizing optimal outcomes for clients.

Authors

• Sarah Esther Lageson, Rutgers University

• Valerio Bacak, Rutgers University

• Christiane Schwarz, Rutgers University